The Business-Oriented CIO: A Guide to Market-Driven Management

Chapter 6. Market Intelligence

If one is only to talk from first-hand experience, conversation would be a very poor business.

—C.S. Lewis

Human beings, who are almost unique in having the ability to learn from the experience of others, are also remarkable for their apparent disinclination to do so.

—Douglas Adams

Yoshi Koyama is like many Japanese information technology (IT) managers approaching retirement. In 1975, he was recruited by a large bank right out of college. He worked his entire professional life for the same employer, thanks to the bank's lifetime employment policy. Lifetime employment was a common benefit at large Japanese companies in the 1970s, so Yoshi could count on decades of reliable work and a decent retirement from the bank at the end of his career. Policies of hiring right out of school and lifetime employment meant that turnover at large Japanese companies was almost unheard of.

The bank used mainframe computers from a single Japanese computer manufacturer that supplied almost all of the IT equipment at the bank. The computer company also was the primary source for all IT training. Knowing that it would have a customer for life, the computer company was ready and willing to make a significant investment in training bank staff. Much of the training was free or bundled into the price of the hardware and software. When training was not free, the cost was very reasonable. Yoshi and his fellow workers spent many days per year being taught by their vendor how to use ...